Low power and Lossy Networks (LLNs), e.g., sensor networks, have a myriad of applications, such as Smart Grid and Smart Cities. Various challenges are presented with LLNs, such as lossy links, low bandwidth, battery operation, low memory and/or processing capability, etc. One example routing solution to LLN challenges is a protocol called Routing Protocol for LLNs or “RPL,” which is a distance vector routing protocol that builds a Destination Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph (DODAG, or simply DAG) in addition to a set of features to bound the control traffic, support local (and slow) repair, etc. The RPL architecture provides a flexible method by which each node performs DODAG discovery, construction, and maintenance.
One cumbersome feature of certain LLNs today is their network formation time, both for cold-start and warm-start network formation scenarios. In either case, the network formation time is generally based on the amount of time it takes for all LLN devices to begin communicating with necessary application end-points. However, due to the often high numbers of nodes, and the low speed and quality of the links in an LLN, the network formation time can be rather lengthy. For example, for these reasons, properly building a stable network topology can take tens of minutes, if not hours.